A little fixin'

We have not been at all fond of our big black microwave above our stove. One because its black and doesn't match the rest of the white appliances we have in our kitchen and two because the cabinets were not installed with a built in microwave in mind. I think it was originally set up to have just an oven vent there. So it drove us nutz-o trying to cook but not really being able to see the stove controls in the back. Plus the microwave was totally old and crusty and didn't even suck up the exhaust when we were cooking! Shown below is our old microwave and cabinet.

So in August we decided to do something about this! We purchased a new white microwave and after talking with our trusted handy man friend- Randy! He told us to buy a new shorter cabinet for above the stove and he would help us install it all. So we did! It took a few months for our schedules to align but when they did Terry and Randy were able to pound this out in one Saturday afternoon! I was SOOOOO happy to finally have this done and to FINALLY be able to see the controls on the stove and to be able to cook and have it feel like normal with out a big hunky microwave hanging down in your face. You couldn't even tell that we had taken out the old cabinet and installed a new one in there. It is perfecto! Plus the kitchen looks bigger to me know that you don't have this HUGE black box sticking out of the cabinets! Here is how it looks now!

 

Another amazing thing about this microwave it it has a HUGE amount of suction. It even has a turbo speed for the fan!!! Sucks all the heat and steam right up! Also the other thing I am completely shocked about is when you turn the microwave on to reheat something you cant even hear it running!!!! It is so quiet! I had to ask Terry if it was working right. I just love my new microwave and the space we gained above the stove. I am one happy chica!

My thrifty June makeover

I have been on the hunt over the past few months for some new bar stools in our kitchen. The ones we inherited with the house I was not too fond of. They were very heavy and I didn't like the way they looked. See below shot of our old bar stools:

So last month I headed over to Habitat for Humanity and found these wonderful bar stools that would look fabulous in our newly painted kitchen. They were only $12 a piece and all they needed was some cleaning and a fresh coat of paint!

Last Sunday I scrubbed and sanded them down and added a new coat of white paint and this is how they now look in our kitchen.

Someday I have visions of painting the seat and back slats a red color to add a bit more red hints to our our kitchen...but for now I am totally and completely painted out and am looking forward to taking a break!

The Big Kitchen Reveal!!!!

OK all! The kitchen is FINALLY complete! Oh my goodness this was the biggest project and the worst project but I am SO glad its completed. Surprisingly it only took about one week start to finish but it was because I took 2 days of vacation in the middle of the week and we worked pretty much non stop on them. One good thing is that when we started working on them the temps were in the 80's which helped significantly in drying the paint quickly...almost too quickly on some days! However was not fun painting the cabinet backs inside the house with oil based primer. I was to the point of picking up the phone and hiring someone to finish it for us...but after we got through the dreaded oil based primer things went much smoother! So without further adieu here are the photos. I have been told to include more before, in process and after photos so here you go.

Here is what our kitchen looked like before:

We washed everything with TSP and then used the stripper/glosser product on them all.

Here is my one hoarder shot after taking everything out of our drawers. It drove me nutzo to have this mess on my dining room table for a week. Don't understand how anyone could live with a mess like this always!

We pulled out the cars and brought all of the doors and drawers into our garage (33 total!)

This is after we applied the nasty smelling oil based primer! Looks so much better already!

Here is how the kitchen cabinets look now. I ended up finding some pulls in a contractor box set which was 10 pulls for $15.97. So it came out to be around $1.59 each. Not too bad since most of them were going for $3-4 each.

After my handy hubby added all the pulls to the cabinets and drawers I started the process of painting the walls a light yellow to finish it all off.

And now for my usual Before and After photos. I did a lot more this time so you could really see the change :)

We also ended up purchasing a NEW dishwasher over the weekend too since our old one sounded like a jet engine while running and leaked water all over or floor every time we ran it! We ended up getting a super duper quiet one and we love that the buttons are hidden. Looks so much more smooth and seamless in your kitchen that way.

In case you didn't see it in the million photos I have on this post ;) Here is our old dishwasher and our new one!

You have no idea how good it feels to have this project done and off our todo list. We just love the new look in our kitchen. It definitely got a face lift and for the cost of a few cans of paint and some cabinet pulls it was well worth it! I think this project ended up costing us just around $130.00! When you think about the cost it would be to remodel your entire kitchen it would be many thousand dollars. I think we will stick with this option!! 

New Kitchen Faucet

Costco had a sale last week on a kitchen faucet we have been eyeing. The one that came with the house was a huge pain. The lever was hard to turn and would stick and you could only go extreme hot and extreme cold.

Here is what the old one looked like:

Now here is our new lovely faucet! Its soooo smooth and doesn't stick when you turn it like the old one and best of all we have better tempetature control. It sure is sweet!

 It even has a cool pull out on it as well as a built in soap dispenser! I have never had such a fancy faucet. ;)

Someday we will eventually replace our sink for one with one large bowl instead of the two smaller ones. We need to replace the counter tops first....but that is a wee bit down the road.